I recently got to sit down and talk with sophomore Katy Lindquist, and I was so impressed by everything she’s involved with here at Colby in just over a year! If you don’t already know her you definitely need to introduce yourself-she’s so friendly and easy to talk to and you’ll probably learn something new about the world if you ask her about what she’s been up to. Katy is a research assistant for the Oak Institute, runs a chapter of STAND (A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition), and is also on the executive student advisory board for the Goldfarb Center. Katy is a double major in Anthropology and Global Studies, and is dedicated to human rights. With all the projects she is working on right now, I’ll be surprised if you don’t hear her name around Colby over the years!
HCC: How did you first become interested in human rights?
Katy: In High School I did a lot of volunteer work and fundraising for human rights and social justice issues. The summer before I came to Colby I took part in a month-long trip to Uganda and to go to a former refugee farm and work with displaced women and child soldiers.
HCC: Is there any particular area of human rights that you hope to study more?
Katy: I want to focus on the Democratic Republic of Congo and the conflict going on there with rape and conflict minerals. I would love to go to Rwanda and study the relationship between Rwanda and the Congo, and conflict resolution. I’m definitely going to peruse some type of human rights work after Colby.
HCC: What are you doing for Jan Plan this year?
Katy: I’m so excited because I just found out a couple days ago that I got a grant from the Goldfarb Center to go to India. I am going to shadow Fatima Burnard, the 2011 Oak Fellow, and intern for the Society for Rural Education and Development (SRED). I’m going to spend my mornings in schools teaching English and working with sex-trafficked girls and women. Then in the afternoons I’ll be visiting different villages to meet women and educate them on their rights. We’ll be working with them on empowerment projects and teaching them English as well. I’ll also spend a couple days in the city visiting slums and doing some office work.
HCC: You sound like a future world-traveler! Do you have any other dream destinations?
Katy: I would love to be a world traveler some day! But my focus for right now is in Africa. I would also want to go to Geneva eventually, because it’s sort of the human rights hub.
HCC: Tell us about some of the courses your taking this year related to your major
Katy: Right now one of my favorite classes is the Ethnographies of Africa, I adore it! I’m also doing an independent study with Walter Hatch. We organized a group of six students interested in human rights and each picked a marginalized group around the world to study. At the end of the year we’re all going to present a 25-30 page paper to the Colby community as part of a big Oak event. I’m studying the Banyamulenge minority group from eastern Congo.
HCC: What are some of the events you’ve helped organize here at Colby?
Katy: I recently organized the Fair Trade event for the Goldfarb Center. I interned for Yobel Markey and went to Uganda with them a couple summers ago, and then brought them to Colby this year. I also helped organize the Gary Newton event; he was a worker involved with displaced orphans. I spent the past summer getting ready for Fatima’s visit and her official event here – I highly recommend a summer at Colby by the way! There’s also a poverty in Maine event next week that I helped to organize, and last Friday STAND had a spoken word concert. I’m also responsible for pretty much every one of those General Announcement emails you get about the Congo.
HCC: Tell us a little more about STAND, what are some of your upcoming projects?
Katy: We have a solid group this year and a great group on the leadership board. Our big project this year is the CFCI, Conflict Free Campus Initiative. It’s a big national campaign that a lot of chapters are taking part in to try and pressure schools from buying electronics from conflict-areas. In terms of natural resources, the Congo is the richest in the world, but in terms of GDPS is the poorest. Local people work in mineral mines and are paid close to nothing if anything at all. The people who run these mines are also armed and use rape and violence to control the workers. One big thing that colleges and universities can do is make a statement that they’re only going to buy electronics from conflict-free companies, and focus on where they are getting their materials from. We’re hoping to meet with Bro before the semester is over and begin talks to see how we could make this a reality at Colby. The Congo has been in a state of war for 15 years, and over 5.4 million people have died. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a big scar of our generation and I really want Colby to start talking about it, because it’s sad and absurd that people don’t know. CFCI is calling on schools to only purchase technology with minerals from sources that are run by people who uphold human rights standards and aren’t using profits to buy guns and fuel warfare. I hope to lessen conflict and really get in there and make a difference.
Katy is excited to get the word out about the issues in the Congo, and to continue her work with human rights at Colby. She hopes to get the whole student body informed and involved so we can really make an impact. It’s eye-opening to realize all the types of projects that people are involved with around campus, and I can’t wait to hear more from Katy in the future-she’s got a great personality and is super inspiring!